


Sharp Objects

by thesearchforbluejello



Category: Whiskey Cavalier (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Pre-1x04, Will and Frankie have baggage honestly jeez, but also humor because this team is a team of dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-01 09:00:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 9,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18332840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesearchforbluejello/pseuds/thesearchforbluejello
Summary: Ray said the mission would be simple. Of course it isn't.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go again with a multi-chapter mission fic! The beta isn't done yet, so consider this first chapter a sneak peak of what's to come! Everything should be on a pretty regular posting schedule starting tomorrow or Thursday, though.

“Frankie,” Will says slowly, a warning in his tone. He can read the calculation on her face, ever so slightly betrayed by the tightness in her eyes. He’s getting better at reading her even when she doesn’t want to be read and is pretty sure he knows exactly what she’s thinking. “Don’t do this,” he says.

She looks up at him and for just a moment he doubts. But then she places the edge of it on the table and very, very slowly lays it down. 

“Ugh!” is Will’s only response as he stares in disbelief at the Draw +4 card. He looks accusingly at Susan. “I thought you said this was supposed to be a trust building exercise!”

“I just thought that it would give us all, you know, the chance to see how we operate under pressure without having actual guns and danger.” She shrugs. “I didn’t take into account the fact that you’re terrible at card games or that Frankie would slaughter you at Uno.”

“Three times,” Frankie adds.

Susan nods. “Probably should’ve seen it coming, though.”

“Probably,” Jai agrees.

“I know I did,” Standish says.

Will sets his mouth in a thin line and collects the four cards and adds them into his frankly outrageous hand.

“Hey!” Ray says as he opens the door. “How’s the team!” Frankie sets her cards facedown on the table and looks at Ray; he skirts his way around to the other side of the table as nonchalantly as possible. Will manages to stifle his smile into something that only twitches at the corners of his mouth. Ray digs a stack of files out of his bag and holds them up. “We’ve got work to do,” he says.

Will neatens his cards into a stack and sets them on the table. “Thank god.”

Frankie shrugs. “I was about to win anyway.”

“Oh, please.” She picks her cards up and flicks them open so can can clearly read the +2 and +4. “What! Come on. No way. You’re cheating.”

Frankie tosses her cards down and shrugs. “Even if I was, I doubt you could prove it.”

“Of course I could.”

She arches an eyebrow at him and hums doubtfully.

“You don’t think I could?”

She shrugs noncommittally. 

Ray is distributing files as everyone piles onto the barstools. “Intel just came through, so we're gonna have to move fast on this one. Darren Lewis,” he says, reaching across the bar to tap a picture on the first page of the report in Jai’s folder, “is the leader of a group of arms dealers operating out of London, which is where you’re going. Flight leaves at 5 o’clock.” Will glances at the clock, reading two already. Not much time to prepare. “Interpol flipped another English dealer Lewis was working with, Rachel Matheson.” He points at Frankie. “You’re going to take Matheson’s place at a deal set to go down tomorrow. Whiskey’s your plus one.”

“Second?” Will asks.

“No,” Ray says, “just a bodyguard. Her second is in the wind since Interpol caught Matheson. She says she’d be long gone by now.” Susan’s eyes narrow at that and for a moment she looks like she wants to say something but seems to think better of it.

“So Matheson and Lewis have never met?” Frankie asks.

“Nope. They’ve done business before, but either through Matheson’s second, Carla Reed, or another proxy. This was supposed to be their first one-on-one. Well,” he adds, “with company.” He gestures to Will.

“What’s Matheson's motivations here, though?” Susan asks. “What did Interpol offer her?”

“Immunity. She said she wants out and intel’s been suggesting that this meeting was supposed to be a buy-out anyway. Getting Matheson to flip on Lewis was worth putting her back in the wind.”

“Simple,” Jai says. “Which means it won’t be.”

Ray shrugs, holding his hands out in what Will assumes is supposed to be some sort of helplessness or placation. “All we need is confirmation that Lewis is there. We can’t assume he won’t move you to a secondary location, so you’ll both wear a tracker that will allow Interpol to find the location of the deal, move in, arrest Lewis.” He claps his hands together. “Simple.”

Standish shakes his head. “When is it ever simple?”

Jai flips his file closed. “See?” he says to Standish. “You’re learning.”

“Plane tickets are in the folders. They all match prepared passports. Jai, you’ll take care of the Visas and everything, right?” Ray asks.

Jai stares at him a moment before looking over at Frankie. “Don’t I always?” She nods before looking back at Ray. 

“Okay,” Ray says when Frankie doesn’t look away from him. “Well, I’ll just… leave you all to sort out everything else then… yeah. I have to go back to the office anyway; I’m catching a different flight--”

“Thank god,” Susan mutters.

“--to liase with Interpol.” He claps his hands on the bar. “See you all in London!”

No one speaks until the door closes behind him.

Will flips the file shut. “Well, if we’re going to get through TSA without missing our flight, we should get going. I’ll go unload the truck so we don’t have firearms in an airport parking garage.”

“Good call,” Standish says.

Jai disappears into the office and Frankie and Susan both continue to study the file. “Is something about this not sitting right to you?” Frankie asks.

“Yup,” Susan says. “You?”

“Why is Matheson selling out? She should know she can’t get away from this.”

“She’s never been a major player until now,” Susan says, “which is what makes this such a great opportunity for us to bust Lewis. This buy-out is her biggest moment. If she really wants out, it’s not the best way to do it, but Lewis would have no reason to come back at her later if the deal goes down fairly.”

Frankie shakes her head. “It’s never that simple. These things have a way of coming back.”

“Mm,” Standish says. “I was thinking the same thing.” Susan and Frankie both look at him. “Just adding my two cents.”

Jai returns with the folders carrying their covers and passes them out, setting Will’s aside.

“Why do we have to be married!” Frankie says in disbelief as she drops the file on the bar.

“Well, you’re going to have to share a hotel room anyway,” Jai says.

Susan leans on the stool next to her. “Sweetie, I’m just going to go ahead and say this.” She puts a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. “If we try telling people you’re brother and sister, you’re going to get a lot of weird looks. It’s going to draw a lot of attention to you.”

“We could just be, I don’t know, two friends sharing a hotel room!” she protests.

Jai taps a hand on the bar. “Also, I think it’s funny.”

Frankie just looks at him in disbelief.

“ _Lot_ of sexual tension,” Standish adds, again.

Will shuts the front door and everyone immediately turns to look at him. He pauses for a moment before he says, “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Frankie snaps, flipping her file shut. She closes the door to the office with more force than strictly necessary.

“No, I definitely missed something,” Will says. 

Susan makes a face that clearly says “I’m staying out of it” and shakes her head. 

Standish says nothing, which in itself raises a red flag for Will.

Jai just looks at him and hums appraisingly before they all disperse.

Will nods. “Yeah, I missed something.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is also unbeta'ed so all mistakes are entirely my own.

They land a little after 6am in London. The wheels hitting the tarmac jolt Will awake and he looks around as the lights come back up to full brightness. Frankie starts winding her headphones back into a neat coil. Will rubs the kink in his neck. “Did you sleep at all?” he asks.

“No,” she says. She stuffs the headphones back in her carryon and sits back in the seat again as the airplane continues to taxi to the gate. 

Will puts his earbud in as discreetly as possible. The comms won’t be up until they’re in the airport, but he wants to hear as soon as Jai turns them on. Next to him, Frankie is turning her cover’s engagement ring around with her thumb, staring at the seat in front of her. He watches her for a moment but she doesn’t seem to notice.

“You okay?”

She stops fidgeting with the ring. “Yeah. Just… eager to get settled,” she says.

He knows she means that she wants this mission over and done with. He watches her face, looking for any hint of what exactly has got her on edge. He lets the concern show on his own face, hoping she’ll notice and explain, but she doesn’t look at him. He rubs at the ache in his neck again and tries to ease some of the stiffness out of his shoulders. 

The seatbelt light finally turns off and Will stands hunched over beneath the overhead bin but finally able to stretch his legs a bit more. He eases his weight from foot to foot and accidentally nudges Frankie’s shoe as he shifts. She looks up at him. “Sorry,” he says.

“Pretty sure footsie falls under my PDA rule,” she says.

He appreciates the attempt at a joke even if her tone is a little too aggressive. “Come on boo,” he says, “don’t be like that. I know you’re jetlagged but you’ll feel better when we get to the hotel.”

She smiles a little bit, just at the corners of her mouth, just enough for him to tell she’s trying not to show any reaction at all to his purposely overdramatic tone.

The crowd starts moving towards the exit and they finally have enough room to move into the aisle. Will can see Susan and Standish a few rows ahead of them and knows Jai is seated somewhere in the rows behind. As he’s pulling his bag down out of the overhead a man shoves into Frankie as he pushes past them. She turns toward him and Will wraps an arm around her waist. “Honey, don’t cause a scene,” he says quietly.

She turns to him and slides her hand beneath his jacket, brushing her fingers against the fabric of his shirt where it lies against his back as she grips his belt. He suppresses a shiver but knows she can tell anyway. Right into his ear, she says, “If you don’t let go of me, I’m going to give you a wedgie.”

Will immediately lets her go. “That’s harsh.”

She makes a face that he can clearly read as “to you, maybe.”

Heathrow is already starting to bustle at this time of the morning and Will watches as Susan and Standish disappear in the crowd. 

“Good morning,” Jai says over the comms. “Welcome to sunny London.” It’s raining outside, blowing in sheets against the large windows overlooking the tarmac.

“I’ll call the rental company,” Frankie says. She sets her carryon down on one of the plastic benches and pulls her phone from her pocket. Will moves toward one of the small kiosks selling coffee. 

“Anything from Ray yet?” he asks.

“Not yet,” Jai says. “I’m sure we'll be hearing from him soon, though.”

“Should we be looking forward to that?” Standish asks.

Will can hear Susan snort in response. “We’ll reconnect when we’re at the hotel and move from there.”

“10-4, roger that,” Standish says.

“Why are you like this,” Susan says.

“You tell me. I mean, you’re the profiler, right?”

Will can almost hear Susan roll her eyes. 

When he makes it back to Frankie he holds up a cup of coffee as greeting. She takes it and shoulders her bag again. “Let’s go.”

“You’re welcome,” Will says.

She begrudgingly holds up the cup. “Thank you.”

*****

By the time they’ve picked up the rental car, stopped to pick up breakfast, and made it to the hotel, it’s already ten o’clock. 

Will takes a shower to rid himself of the clinging ick of travel as soon as they check in. He walks out of the bathroom ready to tell Frankie that this is another hotel whose soap isn’t worth stealing but finds her asleep on the bed, on top of the covers with her shoes abandoned on the floor beside her.

He can't help but smile. As much as he tries to ignore it, the fact that an ex-assassin turned CIA operative is willing to sleep in the same room as him feels like a personal victory, especially considering said operative is difficult at the best of times. Will knows she would have betrayed him in a heartbeat just a few months prior, and yet here she is, trusting him enough to fall asleep. Though, he's not naive enough to think that she wouldn't choose the job over him in a heartbeat, even now. 

That’s a sour thought and he sits on the edge of the bed to put his shoes on. The motion wakes Frankie and she rolls over to look at him. “Sorry,” he says, but it sounds insincere even to him. She narrows her eyes at him like she's trying to understand that comment and it strikes him not for the first time that for a spy she wears her thoughts awfully clearly when she isn't actively trying to hide them. For a moment she looks like she wants to say something, but Will looks away, back to his shoelaces. He can feel her pause and there's something heavy in the air, something pulled tight, so present it feels like he could put his hand up and press against it, taught and discordant. He can't see her behind him but knows she's making a decision. 

The tension snaps like an overstretched elastic and she rolls off the bed, grabs her bag, and shuts the bathroom door behind her. Will hears the shower turn on as he leaves the room and heads downstairs to where Jai, Susan, and Standish have already begun to plan the mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, happy Whiskey Wednesday!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Here's chapter three!

At noon, Will and Frankie are standing in an empty parking lot as instructed by a text Lewis sent to Rachel Matheson's phone. The rain has stopped but a chill breeze is weaving between the buildings at the edge of the industrial park. Frankie leans against the truck and crosses her arms. “You need to relax.”

Will rolls his shoulders. “Don't tell me what I need to do,” he says. “I'm relaxed.”

“You don't sound very relaxed,” Susan says over the comms.

“I'm relaxed!” 

Frankie scuffs her foot against the pavement of the parking lot, toeing a clump of weeds scraggling up from one of the many cracks. “If you don't stop looking like a Fed you're going to blow this,” she says.

“Well for some of us it's easier than others.”

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” Will doesn't even look at her, instead looking ahead with his hands shoved in his pockets. 

__

__

Susan interrupts before Frankie can make the scathing remark that's burning at the tip of her tongue. “You guys, I thought we were past this!”

“So did I,” Frankie snaps.

Will opens his mouth to respond but an SUV enters the parking lot, moving slowly towards them. Frankie straightens up and takes a step forward. Will stays just off her shoulder as the truck rolls to a stop. 

“Rachel Matheson?” a man says, who is clearly not Lewis.

“Yes,” Frankie says. Will is tense behind her and she realizes that he’s getting the distinct feeling that this is about to go sideways too.

“Funny,” he says. “I’d think your wife would recognize you, don’t you think?” The back window of the SUV is down and Frankie sees Carla Reed lean her elbow on the doorframe.

“ _Shit_ ,” Frankie hisses and lunges for the driver’s side door of their truck. Will runs for the passenger side and she manages to get the door open just in time for it to catch the bullets meant for her. 

“What’s happening?” Jai snaps.

“It was a set up,” Will says as they peel out of the parking lot. “Reed is her _wife_. She knew we were coming.”

“Matheson said she’d be in the wind,” Standish says.

“Obviously not,” Frankie snaps. 

“She couldn’t have heard from Matheson,” Susan says, “but we were assuming she was just working for her.”

“Obviously _not_ ,” Frankie snaps again. 

They corner hard, cutting off another a vehicle as Lewis’s crew turns just after them. 

“Susan,” Will says, “find out what--”

He doesn’t get to finish the thought, instead interrupted by a second truck blindsiding them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I know this chapter is ridiculously short, but I picked up an extra shift working in a different department at work and am headed out the door, so *maybe* if we're lucky there will be a fourth chapter this evening ;)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because tyrsenian and Kit Cat asked, here's another chapter.

The horn is ringing thinly in her ears, a weak, half-strangled sound. Her head aches fiercely and for a long moment she can't get past that thought, instead pausing on it as she tries to puzzle out why that might be. She puts a hand to her temple and when she realizes how badly that hurts her palm she looks to see that there's glass, bright and brittle where it clings to her hand, blood welling around the shards. She brushes it away, painting red across her skin. 

She's on her side on what should be the ceiling of the SUV and when it strikes her what has happened she looks immediately for Will. 

The windshield and windows have shattered and he's lying next to her, dusted in glass. “Will?” she says. Fear in her throat is sharp too. She presses bloody fingers to his throat and the relief of his heartbeat is staggering. 

She can hear men yelling and she knows she should leave. Every muscle aches with a physical desire to run, with the awareness that logic dictates for her to cut her loses and get out alive. 

She fires two shots out the windshield as they approach but achieves nothing but hitting pavement. They're approaching from the front and passenger side and she knows she doesn't have enough bullets to win this fight. “Will,” she says, managing to wrap an arm around his chest and pull him towards her. She knows she shouldn't move him but there's no time. “Come on,” she says. His brow furrows at the motion as she shifts him backwards. “Come _on_ , Whiskey,” she snaps and he blinks awake. Frankie fires another shot out the windshield and this time she hears an agonized shout and knows she's hit someone. She tries to shoulder the door open but it's been warped enough by the force of the crash to have stuck shut. She swallows the gripping panic at being trapped and manages to scoot backward out the window as Will puts his hands down and supports his own weight. He struggles toward the window as Frankie fires back at the approaching men, using the truck for cover.

She wipes blood out of her eyes and fires off another shot. Will sits back against the side of the SUV, chin against his chest. Frankie risks a glance over at him and sees the blood on the side of his face, brighter here in the weak sunlight, matting his hair and soaking the collar of his shirt. She doesn’t know how many shots she’s fired, a fact which should concern her but her head is aching and her hands are trembling. It’s shock setting in, she knows, disorienting her even if she doesn’t have a concussion. She lost her comms in the crash and can’t get to the extra clips she has stashed in the SUV. She has one more magazine in her pocket and swaps it out when her pistol clicks empty.

Will stirs against the side of the truck, shifting his weight, but doesn’t lift his head. 

Frankie hears footsteps behind her and fires on the man approaching from the back of the SUV. He drops and she fires her last bullet at the man behind him. Someone grabs her from behind and she hadn’t even heard him approach. An arm wraps around her throat and she slams her heel down on the man’s foot. He only increases the pressure and haze dances at the edges of her vision. He hooks her ankles with his foot and drops her to her knees. She’s wheezing as she tries to breathe and someone jerks her hands behind her and zipties her wrists together before doing the same to her ankles. The man holding her drops her and the impact of her head against the pavement is more than her tenuous grasp on consciousness can take.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys, I have SO MUCH upcoming stuff that I'm super excited to share! Drop me a line, let me know what you think of this story so far!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot! Angst! Bickering!  
> I almost forgot to post this because I'm working on two WIPS concurrently, so expect some of that soon too!

Frankie wakes up to a bucket of very cold water.

She gasps and blinks away the water in her eyes and scrambles through hazy confusion to assess the situation. Lewis is sitting in a chair in front of her, Matheson’s second behind him. Her bound wrists have been tied to a rope strung over one of the rafters, leaving most of her weight pulling at her shoulders and the rest on her toes on the concrete floor. Will is nowhere in sight.

“So,” Lewis says. “I have no interest in prolonging this. We will do this simply. All I want is the location of where your team has moved Matheson’s supply. You give it to me and I won’t kill your partner. Easy.”

Frankie processes that. He obviously knows she’s working with a team and isn’t a free agent looking to make a quick buck. They’d already known Reed was aware Matheson was captured, but had counted on her having cut her loses and run, not informing Lewis. It doesn’t give Frankie much room to work. 

This is why she doesn’t work with a partner, much less one she’d prefer to keep alive.

“I don’t know where it is,” she says. “It wasn’t part of our assignment.”

There’s another bucket of water and she coughs out what gets in her mouth. She realizes that it’s still bright outside the warehouse windows so she knows she hasn’t been here long. It’s cold, and the draft blowing in the broken windows chills her to the bone. They’ve removed her jacket, no doubt to make sure she had no more weapons on her, which is unfortunate, because she did.

“Look,” she says. “I just do what I’m told.”

“Isn’t that convenient,” Lewis says. “I happen to be telling you to tell me.” Frankie furrows her brow and doesn’t bother hiding her confusion. “Okay, yes, that was awkwardly phrased,” Lewis says. “No matter. Matheson and I had a deal and I’m not going to let her or anyone else stop me from getting what I want. It’s bad business to let anyone double cross you; don’t think I’ll hesitate to use you as an example. I think you know where her supply has been moved and if you don’t tell me I’m going to shoot your partner in the head. ”

Frankie almost opens her mouth to tell him she wouldn’t care, but the trick to being a convincing liar is only choosing lies you can sell.

“I don’t know where it is,” she says. 

Lewis stands from his chair. “Shame.”

He nods and one of his men approaches Frankie with a knife. She waits until he’s right in front of her before she pushes up off her toes, using her grip on the rope to pull her up a little higher and slam both of her feet into the man’s stomach. Her arms are too numb to hold her up any longer, but it was just enough time. Lewis approaches and moves to grab her; she headbuts him and sends him staggering backwards, clutching his bloody nose.

Reed hangs back near the chair Lewis had been sitting in. “Cut me down and I’ll make sure your wife keeps her deal,” she snaps. Reed hesitates. “Come on!” She runs forward and cuts the rope. Frankie’s feet hit the floor and she falls onto her back. Reed cuts the ziptie around her ankles. “Get out,” Frankie says as Reed cuts the tie around her wrists as well. “But give me the knife.” Reed presses it into her hands.

“Is she okay?” Reed asks.

“She’s fine. She’ll find you, don’t worry.”

“I’m sorry,” Reed says. “He would have killed her and I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

“Just go.”

Frankie staggers to her feet. Reed slams her boot into Lewis’s man’s crotch, dropping him back to the floor before she’s out the door and gone. This mission was supposed to be much easier, but Frankie came prepared. Lewis lunges forward and grabs her around the throat, pressing his thumbs into the bruises still forming from the chokehold she’d been in earlier. She brings her hand up and slips one of the trackers beneath his collar. Then she brings her knee up into his stomach. She parries one blow as he surges forward again but her arms are so numb that he manages to land a second one, a hit to the right side of her ribs that feels almost like a pinch beneath the impact. She presses a hand to it and finds that she’s bleeding. In his hand is a stiletto blade that she assumes had been disguised as the pen in his lapel pocket.

Lewis rushes her again and she blocks another strike with the blade. She hooks his ankles out from under him and uses her body weight to push him backwards and ride his fall. She rolls out of the impact and as he comes to his hands and knees kicks him in the head, knocking him unconscious.

Outside the door Reed had run through, Frankie can see the SUV that had no doubt brought them here. She runs past the door and down the hallway corridor that leads away from the loading bay and back towards where she assumes the offices must be and where she assumes Will must be if he’s in the same building, and if he’s even still alive. 

One of the doors opens and Frankie doesn’t hesitate before lunging at the man who steps out. He parries her first blow but it was just a distraction and she buries Reed’s knife in his chest. She wrenches it free as he falls and pulls the pistol free of his belt. 

There’s no one in the office except Will, sitting on the floor with his hands and ankles tied. He smiles drunkenly as she drops to her knees beside him and starts cutting the ties. “It’s about time!” he says.

“I didn’t see you contributing.”

“Why are you all wet?” 

She looks at him. “I got acquainted with a couple buckets of water. Are you okay?” He smiles at her, broad and cheesy and she rolls her eyes. “They drugged you?”

“Oh, definitely.”

“Can you walk?”

“Probably. Maybe?” She hauls him to his feet with his arms around her neck. The pain in her side ratchets up a few notches and she grunts as she takes his weight. She grabs his belt at his hip and moves them toward the door.

“I’ve seen baby giraffes move better than you are right now,” she pants. Will doesn’t answer, staring at his feet instead.

As they reach the door he gets his toe caught on the doorframe and trips; his weight and his arm across her shoulders takes Frankie down with him. Her vision whites out as she hits the floor with him on top of her, the wound in her side suddenly blazing with unexpected pain. For something she’d barely noticed when it happened, it hurts an awful lot. She rolls onto her hip and raises herself onto her elbows, trying to regain her bearings. She coughs and the force of it has her seeing stars; when she opens her eyes, there’s blood on the floor.

She wipes it off her lip and sits up. Will hardly stirs as she rolls him over. The only sign that he’s even aware of what’s happening around him is the discomfort that passes over his face as she hauls him into a sitting position. She tries to get him standing, but it’s like hauling a sack of potatoes, except that sack of potatoes is six inches taller than her and entirely uncooperative. 

“Come on,” she snaps. 

“Hey!” one of Lewis’s men shouts down the hall. She fires two shots at him and the man beside him, ducking down in the exposed hallway as they fire back, trying to shield Will as best she can. She fires three more shots and the gun clicks empty. She growls, tossing it aside, because honestly, what kind of mercenary doesn’t keep his weapon fully loaded?

She puts herself between the men and Will, rising to her feet with her hands up. The knife is in her belt but she has no chance of using it until they get closer.

“Get on your knees,” one of them says. She obeys, putting her hands behind her head. One of the men keeps his gun trained on her while the other moves towards her. Will stirs on the floor, just a slight shift of his weight, and when the man’s eyes flick towards him Frankie lunges forward, about to slash the knife across his throat. He’s faster, though, not slowed by shock and injury, and slams the but of his pistol into the side of her head. She’s unconscious before she hits the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments keep me motivated. I need the motivation. Desperately. Do the thing. Even if you just scream, it makes me so, so happy.


	6. Chapter 6

Frankie wakes to darkness and confusion. Her head is pounding and it takes a moment to dredge up any recollection of how she got here. 

There’s a wall or something behind her back and something that’s maybe a floor underneath her, but what’s pinning her against the wall behind is distinctly not a wall and smells like lemon verbena soap. “Will,” she says, unpinning her arm from between them and gripping his arm. She may be disoriented but she’s sure it’s him. “Will,” she says again. She manages to find his throat and press her fingers to his pulse. For the third time today she’s relieved beyond measure to find he’s still alive.

She presses her forehead between his shoulder blades and tries to breathe calmly even though the air feels strangely unsatisfying. The taste of blood is bitter in her mouth. Her knees are tucked up behind his and her feet touch the bottom of whatever space they’re in if she stretches her legs even a little. She doesn’t have any room to move and reach out past Will, but she reaches up and before she can fully extend her arm her palm meets a rough surface that feels like wood.

They’re trapped.

*****

By the time Ray and Susan make it to the scene of the accident, police are already there. They’re out of the truck without even closing the doors and Ray is yelling, “What the hell happened here?”

“I’m sorry sir, this is a crime scene,” one of the police says, putting a hand up to halt them. Susan steps around him and moves toward the truck, scattered shards of glass crunching under her shoes.

Behind her Ray is holding up his badge. “Listen,” he says, pointing at it, “the people in that SUV were members of my team; where are they?”

The truck is still upside down in the road, abandoned in the shattered glass. The windows are all blown out and half the windshield is gone. Susan stoops to look in the window and can see bloody handprints on the ceiling and on the seat. She moves around to the driver’s side and sees the blood around the window and knows they had climbed out this way. There’s more blood against the side of the truck, and the ground is littered with shell casings. One of them had been conscious, at least, and the lack of blood on the ground tells her neither of them had been shot. 

“So you know how I said I wasn’t getting a lock on either of their trackers,” Jai says over the comms.

“Yes?” Susan asks because Ray is still arguing with the officer.

“Well I’m still not, but I do have a lock on one of the micro transmitters. Frankie must have used that instead.”

“Who’d she use it on?”

“I have no idea.”

“Lewis?” Standish suggests.

“Or Will,” Susan says. 

“Only one way to find out,” Jai says.

“Yup,” Susan agrees. “Ray, let’s go!” she shouts, heading back to the truck.

“Interpol will meet us there,” Jai says.

“Got it,” Ray says as he shuts the door. “Send us the location.”

“Pick us up on the way,” Jai says, “we’ll be ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The repetition of them trapped in confined spaces gave me Ideas™️.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's been commenting on this and Remember You. You guys make me happy beyond belief, seriously. Every time I see another comment in my inbox it makes me, like, deliriously happy. I've been so busy working on Remember You and a new fic that's almost done (!) that I haven't had time to reply yet, but I will!
> 
> Keep 'em coming! They really do keep me motivated.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're starting to get close to the climax of the plot here! Enjoy some angst.

Frankie feels Will shift against her and wakes again, blinking into the darkness as though she can blink it away. Will grunts as he bangs a knee into the side of the box.

“It’s okay,” she says as he tries to turn towards her. “It’s okay.” She puts a hand on his shoulder. “We’re kind of stuck.”

“Kind of?” he asks groggily.

“Pretty stuck,” she amends.

“How long…” he pauses. “How long was I out?”

“Dunno. Long enough that my shirt is dry.” Well, except for the wound in her side that’s still bleeding sluggishly, but she omits that detail.

Will moves like he’s trying to turn towards her and she pushes the heel of one hand hard against his back. “ _Stop_ moving.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll be okay when you stop _squishing_ me,” she snaps. “I just said stop!”

He pauses in his wiggling. “I’m trying to give you more room!” he mumbles. “And stop yelling, I have a headache.”

“So do I, and it won’t stop moving,” she grouses and doesn’t resist the urge to kick at his foot when he moves again.

“Weren’t you the one who said footsie is against your PDA rule?” he says, and the remark sounds much more lucid. “And not that I object to being the little spoon, but your elbow is really digging into my back.”

“Sorry,” she says but knows it doesn’t sound sincere. She shifts enough to succeed both in pulling her arm out from between them and pressing her wound into the floor of the box. She rests her elbow on Will’s arm and coughs into her other hand.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Will says.

“Lots of things, I’m sure,” she gasps. “I’m a complicated person.”

Will just grunts in response to that. “Frankie,” he says.

“Stop wasting air,” she says. “We’re going to need all of it.”

“Yeah,” he says, outwardly agreeing but still sounding dissatisfied. 

*****

“It's fine,” Jai says. “I _said_ it's fine.”

Standish holds his hands up and leans back. “Okay, fine, it's cool.”

Susan just rolls her eyes and continues working. 

“Anything?” Ray asks, turning the corner. Susan glances up as they pass through another intersection.

“Just that we should’ve been more worried about Reed,” she mutters.

“Don’t _touch_ that,” Jai snaps in the back seat.

“Dude, come on, I’m trying to help.”

“Would you guys _shut up_?” Susan snaps. They both look up at her as she turns in her seat. “I know we’re all worried but you need to focus and stop bitching at each other!”

“She’s right,” Standish says, looking at Jay.

Jay’s lips twitch as he fights a retort but all he says is, “Yes, she is.”

“Thank you,” Susan says and turns back forward in her seat. 

Ray’s phone rings and he answers it. “Prince. Yeah, okay, good. What do you mean they’re-- no, I don’t. Yeah, thanks.” He drops the phone in one of the cupholders and glances around the SUV. Everyone is looking at him. “Interpol and local SWAT got Lewis. Or, whatever they call SWAT here.”

“And?” Susan prompts.

“They're not there.”

“What?”

“They're not there.”

“What do you mean ‘they’re not there,’” Jai says.

“I mean that Whiskey and Fiery aren’t there. The tracker led them right to Lewis, but when they stormed the warehouse, they weren’t there.”

“Well we know they didn’t go back to the hotel,” Standish says. “They would’ve, like, called us, right?”

“And they're still off comms,” Jai agrees.

“Well,” Ray says as they turn into a parking lot populated by police vehicles, “let’s go investigate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are probably four or five more chapters after this, so we're a little more than halfway through. A couple of them are pretty short so _maybe_ we'll see pairs posted together at one point or another.
> 
> Comments keep me motivated!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene inspired the entire fic, by the way.
> 
> Happy Whiskey Wednesday!

“Frankie,” Will says. “Frankie.”

“What,” she grunts. 

“You fell asleep.”

“And.”

“I’m not sure we should fall asleep.”

“I thought we agreed on not talking,” she grouses. “It was the one perk of this situation.” Will shifts beside her and she’s about to yell at him until she realises that he’s laughing. “Why are you laughing?!” She feels him shake his head and can’t stop herself from beginning to laugh with him. “You’re wasting air,” she says.

“So are you,” he laughs. “How long do you think we’ve been in here?” he asks, sobering up a little.

“A few hours, maybe. I was hungry a little while ago, but.”

“Now you just feel kind of sick?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, me too. Not good.”

“No.” She sighs, but it dissolves into a harsh, wracking cough.

“Frankie,” he says.

“What.”

“Neither carbon monoxide poisoning nor hypoxia sound like that.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Partners don't lie to each other.”

“I didn't lie; I told you not to worry about it.” There’s a beat of silence but before he can respond she says, “You know, if this goes bad, and if they don’t find us, then… dying with you is better than dying alone, I guess. I don’t necessarily hate having you around.”

“That’s…” he starts to say. “That’s the hypoxia talking.” He feels her laughing behind him before he hears it. It only takes a moment before they’re both giggling again and the sound is loud in the small space. “We… should be… conserving air,” he gasps between giggles. It seems like something he’s said before. She presses her forehead between his shoulder blades and doesn’t stop laughing. “Frankie,” he says, in warning and concern.

“Don’t be flattered,” she gasps, “I’m not actually… laughing at you.”

“Keep telling yourself that and you might start believing it,” he says, because he can’t resist, and that just makes him start laughing again.

He only realizes he’s fainted when he registers Frankie’s voice. “Will. Wake up!” He can feel the dull points of pressure where her fingers are pressed between the tendons of his wrist, the crescents of her fingernails biting into his skin. He should feel it more, feel it sharper, he knows, but his hands are stiff and tingling. 

“What?” he says, realizing belatedly that he knows exactly why she’s yelling at him.

“Stay awake.”

“You too.” He can feel her heart beating against his back, a rapid staccato rhythm that’s out of sync with his own, settling into time just for a moment. 

She slaps him on the chest with an open palm and he jerks awake again, elbowing her accidentally and throwing his shoulder back into her face. “Wake up,” she says.

“I’m awake.”

“You are now. You’re welcome,” she says. There’s anger in her tone but she’s still got her hand pressed against his chest.

“We shouldn’t be talking.”

“I have to keep you awake.”

He nods instead of answering. She doesn’t say anything more, though, and all Will can hear in the silence is the rush of blood in his head and their labored breathing. He starts counting his heartbeats up to five and down again. 

He doesn’t know how long he’s been counting when he feels her hand relax against his chest. “Frankie?” he says. “Frankie.” He reaches back and shakes her hip. Her foot hits the side of the box with a dull sound and she jerks awake.

“What happened?”

“You fell asleep.”

She coughs a little behind him. “I did?”

“Yeah.” He’s got little spots dancing in his vision now, little pinpricks of fantasy light, which is strange given that the box is entirely dark. “This isn’t exactly how I imagined this,” he says.

“No?”

“I never, well, _didn’t_ expect to die in the line of duty, but not like this. I thought it would be quicker.”

There’s a beat of silence before she says, “For a while I didn’t think I’d even live this long. Before I joined the CIA, that… taking those kinds of jobs puts a limit on your lifespan.”

He lets the silence brew for a moment before he says, “I’m glad you did.”

“Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, I am too.”

Will coughs and the little pinpricks of light dance more aggressively. Frankie slips her hand down his arm until her palm is over the back of his hand; she laces her fingers with his. The tension is a physical pressure in his chest even greater than the building suffocation. He wants to make a joke and briefly considers it. One last chance to make her laugh, a hard won reward. It’s too much, though, and he knows it.

He squeezes her hand instead.

“Will,” she says.

“Yeah?”

“I was cheating at Uno.”

“I knew it.”

“It was Susan’s idea.”

“Of course it was.”

“They were all passing me cards.”

Will nods. “Of course they were.” Then he’s laughing and Frankie’s laughing with him and maybe she’s right that this isn’t the worst way to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so everyone knows, that Uno joke is the funniest thing I've ever come up with in my life, so don't expect me to match it. Like, ever.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I finally have an accurate chapter count. Maybe.

They walk the warehouse and try to piece together the scene. There's an abandoned chair in the middle of the loading bay and a rope hung from the rafters. 

“It was cut,” Jai says. He inspects the remnants of the knot on the floor. “Too small to have been a noose.” The picture that leaves them with is clear enough. 

“Too low to have been Will,” Susan adds. 

Standish says nothing. 

“There's blood, too,” Ray says. There's only a few droplets of it on the floor, pitted in the dirt, dried. 

“Here too,” Standish says. There's more near his feet. 

Jai looks around. “No shell casings, though.”

“Well that's good,” Ray says. 

Jai shakes his head. “Not necessarily.”

They move across the open floor, spread out to look for evidence. “Over here,” Susan finally says, standing at the mouth of the hallway. She points at the shell casings at her feet and on the other side of the doorway, clearly ejected by pistols fired by people using the wall for cover. There's more down the hall, near an open door, and blood spatter on the floor again. Susan looks into the open room and there are cut zip ties lying on the floor. “So Frankie came this way,” she says, “and cut Will free. Before or after the gunfight with the guy in the hall?”

“Before,” Jai says. “No blood over there means she didn't kill the guys firing on her. Which means they managed to subdue her. She had to have cut Will loose first and then been stopped when they tried to get out.” He shakes his head. “What I don't get is why after managing to free herself she came this way. If they disabled the trackers, she should've subdued Lewis herself. She would've left Will, but it doesn't make sense for her to have been here first either.”

“I think you're miscalculating that,” Susan says. “She came to get Will.”

“But she _shouldn't_ have. She should've left.”

“So,” Standish says slowly before Susan can reply, “how does this help us? Do we even know if they're alive?”

Ray shakes his head. “No, we don't. But I'm not going to believe Will's dead until I see it. So we're going to find them.” Everyone looks at him in surprise. “What? Just because Will hates me doesn't mean I'm not going to do everything in my power to bring him back alive. And,” he adds, “just because Frankie almost killed me doesn't mean I won't try to find her too. We're a team.”

“Wow, Ray,” Susan says. 

“Yeah. Just, don't tell her I said that. She might actually kill me this time. You can tell Will, though. Maybe it'll earn me some points.”

Susan rolls her eyes. 

“What now?” Standish asks. 

Susan looks at him. “Now we interrogate Lewis.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How 'bout last night's episode, eh? LOVED IT.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just kidding, the chapter count was wrong. But here's another chapter for today as an apology.

Will is, unfortunately, somehow awake. 

His head is pounding and he can hear the rush of blood in his head with every beat of his heart. He's been panting for a good while now, who knows how long, as his body struggles to process enough oxygen out of the air they've slowly been filling with carbon dioxide just by breathing. Frankie's been unconscious for awhile but is gasping in shallow breaths behind him, the only sign she's still alive. Will wants to move so he can shake her awake but exhaustion is a heavy, pressing weight over him. His fingers are curled over hers, holding both of them in place.

*****

Susan sits down across from Lewis and waits. He watches her steadily. She waits, without speaking, her elbows resting on the surface of the table he’s handcuffed to. She waits until he starts tapping his fingers. Then she leans back, choosing her words very carefully. “I’m here to make a deal,” she says.

“Figured,” he says.

She tilts her head to acknowledge that. “You have something I want, and I have something you want. It’s a fair trade. Something I’ve been told you haven’t exactly upheld in the past.”

Lewis watches her levelly with a businessman’s mask. “I’m listening.”

“Two members of my team are missing. One of them is my very best friend and I am very interested in his safe return. I want their location, and in return I will make sure you get to stay in solitary, away from anyone you’ve ever double crossed.”

Lewis chuckles but Susan can see the interest her offer brings belied by the slight tension that creeps into the corners of his eyes. “I have plenty of information you need. You’ll cut a deal.”

“I’m sure,” Susan says. “But deals and trials take time. What I’m offering will take effect immediately. You’ll actually live to see the trial.”

Lewis searches her face and she doesn’t give an inch. He shrugs with a single shoulder and Susan knows she’s won. “Revenge means little to me, even if that hellcat did kill several of my men. It's bad business to go out of your way to settle a score that could have been leveled to begin with. She’s probably dead by now anyway, but your friend might still be alive.”

Susan doesn’t let herself react. “Where are they?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't stan Susan Sampson you're wrong and that's that.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're drawing near the end!

Susan throws open the door and they all pile out of the SUV before Ray has even put it in park. There are police officers with shovels digging at the freshly disturbed soil in the middle of the fallow field, silhouettes cut in haggard shadows by the bitter white light of their patrol cars. 

The men are shouting and Jai is shouting at Standish and the lid is pulled off the box they’ve uncovered. 

Susan can barely breathe. 

Will is holding tight to Frankie’s hand, looking to all the world like he’s asleep. Frankie is curled around him, her face pressed against his back, her arm protectively laid over him. The policemen pull Will out first, dragging him free of Frankie’s hold and up onto the ground. Susan and Ray rush towards him; Susan grabs him from behind as they lay him down, supporting him against her and pressing her fingers against his throat. Ray kneels beside them.

“He’s alive,” she says, but the fear is still coiled tight in her chest. 

He moves his head against her shoulder. “It’s okay, buddy,” Ray says. “We’ve got you.” Will moves again, barely conscious yet somehow restless. Ray puts a hand on his arm.

One of the police officers is standing in the box and he helps Standish and Jai lift Frankie onto the ground. “Is she alive?!” Susan yells, even though they're only a few feet away, and her voice breaks.

Will exhales a breath like he wants to say something and Susan readjusts her grip on him, arm tight across his waist.

Frankie is motionless, still in the white light of the cars. “Come on, Francesca,” Jai says, fingers pressed to her throat. Standish is knelt next to them with his hands awkwardly raised like he doesn’t know what to do. Susan can see the side of Frankie’s shirt is dark with blood and a thin trail of it has crept from the corner of her mouth across her cheek from the angle she’d been lying in the box. 

Will is trying to blink himself awake. He grabs at Susan's wrist with clumsy fingers and tries to pull her arm away. “She’s okay,” Susan says. “She’s okay.”

The police officer tries to feel for a pulse in her wrist but Jai snaps, “Don’t _touch_ her,” with so much venom the man drops her hand immediately. After a long moment he finally, finally says, “She’s alive! I’ve got a pulse. She’s alive.”

Susan hugs Will a little tighter, resting her forehead against his temple. Ray pats his leg. Standish, still kneeling next to Jai, scrubs his hands over his face.

They hear the siren before the headlights of the ambulance bounce into the field, bleaching everything around them. One of the paramedics rushes towards Will and he bats the man's hand away. “No,” he says. 

“Will,” Susan says, “you have to get checked out.”

He's so weak he can barely lift his chin off his chest, but he shoves the paramedic’s hands away again with as much force as he can manage. “ _No_ ,” he snaps in a tone of frustration and anger Susan has seldom heard from him. “Help Frankie,” he says. 

The paramedic doesn't look like he understands but leaves to join his partner at Frankie's side anyway. Will is still wound tight as a wire and Susan hugs him a little tighter, running a hand up and down his arm as he starts to shiver. 

Ray shrugs out of his jacket and drapes it over Will. “Relax, buddy,” he says. “She’ll be back on her feet and ready to beat the shit out of me in no time.” Will nods and leans his head back against Susan's shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes, right?


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second to last chapter!

Susan rides in the ambulance with Will and finds herself underfoot when they arrive at the hospital. She watches through the window and forces herself to be calm. He's asleep pretty much as soon as they get him settled, even before they get the IV drip set in his arm. Susan takes the fear of seeing her best friend unconscious in a hospital bed, an IV in his arm and an oxygen cannula across his face, and ties it up tight and keeps it bound with the knowledge that he's okay, that they got to him in time. That there will be time to compartmentalize this trauma more neatly later. 

She sets off to find Jai. 

She gets lost even following the signs to the ICU but knows she's found the right place when she sees Jai pacing just inside the double doors that shield the waiting room from the noise of the main hallway. He looks up as she pushes the doors open. “She's okay,” he says. “She's alive, and she's breathing on her own. She has a-- a stab wound to her chest, and the blade punctured her lung, so there's blood in her chest, but she's breathing on her own. She's okay,” he says again. Susan hugs him. She knows Jai is the type of person who displays affection in small gestures, usually involving some sort of disguised explosive ordinance, but he hugs her back anyway. 

The hydraulic above the doors hiss as Ray and Standish push their way through. “They're okay,” Susan says immediately, letting her hand drop from Jai's shoulder as he straightens his sport coat. Relief is evident on their faces and in their body language.

“How are they doing?” Ray asks. “I mean, besides from okay.”

“Will's blood oxygen was pretty low but he'll come out of it just fine.”

They look at Jai for his report on Frankie but he just shakes his head. “I need some air,” he says, and disappears into the hall. 

“He's just worried,” Susan says. 

“I get that,” Standish says. “Frankie's okay, though? Like, she'll be okay?”

“Yeah. She's stable, but my guess is they'll keep her for awhile.” 

Standish nods and Ray claps him on the back when he doesn’t relax. “It's okay. Disaster averted. Everybody's alive, we did our job, it's all good.” Standish nods again. “Let's go back to the hotel, get cleaned up, and head back here in a couple hours. They're not going to let us see them right now anyway.”

The hallway is quiet this time of night and Susan nods to Jai to join them as they walk back towards the parking garage. He falls into step with them without a word. 

“You know,” Standish says, “on the way back to the hotel, do you think we could maybe stop at a McDonald's or something? I don't know about you guys but now that I'm not afraid that somebody's, like, about to die, I'm _starved_.”

“Yeah,” Ray laughs. “I'm sure we can find something that's open.” Susan rolls her eyes and Jai shakes his head, but neither of them argue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please ignore the note after this; I've used every trick I know and it won't go away. It won't, in fact, get angstier. It will get cuter. And then the next story will be angstier again.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it.

Will has already proofread his mission report twice when Frankie runs a hand across her face, rubbing at her eyes. 

“Hey you,” he says with a smile, setting the tablet down and scooting forward in his chair. 

“Hey,” she says. She narrows her eyes at him a bit. “Last time I woke up, Jai was here.”

Will nods. “Jai finally decided that he's human and needs to sleep. I was beginning to have my doubts, but.” She doesn't smile at that. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

He's a little taken aback by the snarkless response. There are a thousand words to say that come to mind but none of them are quite right. Instead he says, “Thank you.” She looks over at him in surprise and there's so much written on her face that's gone too quickly for him to parse before she shuts him out again. “For saving my life,” he specifies, even though he's sure she knows exactly what he's talking about. She looks away. 

Will knows she should've left him. Their job was to get Interpol to Lewis, and when that failed she should've brought Lewis to Interpol. Instead, she'd risked losing Lewis and had come to get him, almost getting herself killed in the process. The magnitude of that isn't lost on him, but he's not exactly sure how to process it. 

“I guess we're even now,” he says. “You know, from when I saved your life in France.”

That earns him her attention again as she glares at him. “I thought I told you to stop bringing that up,” she snaps. 

Will reaches for the tablet. “But you're not denying that I did.”

“Even if you did--” 

“Please,” he interrupts, “I so did.”

“ _Which_ I'm not saying you did, that wouldn't mean you could just bring it up whenever you felt like it.”

Will shrugs, tapping on the tablet screen. “I'm just saying, I _did_.” She makes a face at him and he can see how badly she wants to throw it back in his face that she'd saved his life as well, but to his surprise she doesn't. Again he finds himself not knowing what to think. “Okay,” he says, “push over.”

“What?”

“Push over,” he says again, sitting on the edge of the bed before she can object. “You’re stuck here for at least another day, so I downloaded _Tomorrow Never Dies_ so we can make fun of James Bond.”

“You like James Bond?”

“No, of course not, I can't stand James Bond. That's why we're going to make fun of him.”

Frankie studies his face for a moment like she’s not sure if he’s joking. When he raises his eyebrows she laughs. To his utter and complete surprise, she shifts over on the bed to make room for him. He settles next to her and shifts his shoulders until he’s comfortable and has left enough space between them to not crowd her. “Comfortable?” he asks.

Frankie rolls her eyes. “Just play the movie.”

*****

The last thing Susan thinks she expects is to walk into Frankie’s room and see Will sitting on the bed with her, legs sprawled out with his tablet abandoned on his stomach playing _Tomorrow Never Dies_ to the ceiling. He’s sound asleep, hands clasped over his chest, head leaned back on the pillow. Frankie’s asleep too, her cheek resting on his shoulder. Susan wonders who’ll be the first to wake and pretend that nothing had happened. She just smiles and leaves them to figure this one out on their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed it! I have a major headcanon that Will hates James Bond's overdramatic, womanizing ways, so this seemed like the perfect way to incorporate that. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought! I love to hear from everyone!
> 
> Also a note on typos: it looks like my phone autocorrected Jai's name in a few spots, which I've tried to catch, but they might be some I didn't see.
> 
> And, because this chapter is so short, I'll post the first chapter (which is basically a teaser) of _Call Me By My Name_ in a little while.

**Author's Note:**

> It's about to get angstier.
> 
> Comments make me feel validated! Let me know what you liked! Please! I thrive on feedback on my sole source of sustenance!


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